Abstract of a Meteorological Journal. 79 



was, however, more than balanced by the cold of the winter and 

 spring months. The mean temperature of the four seasons is as 

 follows. It will be proper to remark that in estimating the win- 

 ter of 1838, I take in December of 1837, which properly belongs 

 to this winter. To have the seasons correctly miited, the mete- 

 orological year ought to begin with December, in the place of 

 January, which gives a portion of two winters to the year, instead 

 of an undivided one. 



Winter months 30.42. Spring months 49.87. 



Summer months 74.23. Autumn months 50.43. 

 Some portion of the winter, was remarkable for its severity, 

 especially the month of February, the mean of which is lower 

 by several degrees than that of any other for more than thirty 

 years past. The mercury was below zero on a number of morn- 

 ings, and for the whole month it rose above the freezing point in 

 the middle of the day, only on seven days. The mean for the 

 month is 20.86. The spring months were cold and wet ; espe- 

 cially May, more than half the days of which were cloudy or 

 rainy. Vegetation was very backward, and at the close of the 

 month, the Indian corn, which was only three or four inches high, 

 was white, and nearly as destitute of color as plants which grow 

 in the dark. The mean heat was five degrees less than that of 

 1837. In June the weather became warmer, but was still very 

 wet. Early in July the rains ceased, and it became hot and dry, 

 so that there fell in this month less than an inch of rain. In 

 August, the heat still continued, accompanied by severe drought, 

 which was felt from the western side of Ohio, easterly to the 

 foot of the Green Mountains in Vermont. The mean heat of the 

 summer months, was five degrees greater than that of 1837. In 

 September, the heat and drought continued until the twenty sec- 

 ond of the month, when there fell a little more than one inch of 

 rain. After this period, the weather was cooler. October was 

 cold and dry, being five degrees below that of last year. Novem- 

 ber was the same, and ten degrees lower, being only 38.62 for 

 the month. In December the cold increased in the same ratio, 

 showing a mean for the month, of 28. l^, and on the last day of 

 the year in the morning stood at nine below zero. The dry 

 weather still continued, and in place of the periodical, annual 

 rains which fall at the winter solstice, with far more certainty 

 than at the equinox, we had only a thin coating of clouds for a 



